Lifestyle Changes That Affected Acne

We asked our users ‘Have you ever made a lifestyle change that made your acne dramatically better or worse? If so, tell us about it..” About 30% of survey respondents replied with some variety of ‘I have never identified a lifestyle change that had an effect on my acne.’

“No, my acne just has its days when it’s alright and then sometimes it gets pretty bad”

“I went to another town and even after not washing my face for three days my acne seem to be getting better. But as soon i returned to my hometown the acne continued.”

“Not that I know of. But for sure when I eat worse my acne increases.”

“Stay out in the sun a lot. And be very happy with life”

“I would say eating junk food and not getting enough sleep.”

“When I started taking tetracycline, my skin was completely clear, but then I became resistant to it.”

“My adult acne started around August of 2009. I was getting married in November of that same year. My skin got better around September when I was doing a lot of exercise, but then I got the flu and I wasn’t able to get back into my
routine. I also ran out of my tinted moisturizer and couldn’t get to buying it again so I started using an oil-free foundation instead. My skin got worser around February of 2010. I stopped using the make up I had been using and slowly started switching everything. I’ve seen an improvement in my face since about May, which is when I got back from a 2 week trip to Brazil and I switched to Dermalogica.”

“Yes, I tried Accutane but was unable to complete my cycle due to moving complications. I had to quit 4 months early”

“Drinking more water and eating more fiber made my skin much better.
Going off birth control for a few months and breaking up with my long term boyfriend (high stress) at the same time made my face go insanely bad.
Taking my makeup off as soon as I get home from work seems to have also made a positive improvement.”

“worse: using harsh stuff like benzoyl peroxide, scratching out acne. better: not doing ANYTHING all day just sitting in a cold area where I don’t get sweaty”

“Pregnancy made it better. My skin FEELS better since using Braggs apple cider vinegar but it doesn’t cure the acne.”

“Taking zinc”

“Not really, though last year I decided to use nair on my upper lip and after that all my acne started focusing there and on the sides of my mouth. Before most of my acne was on my forehead, temples,Jawline, neck, back and chest, all of which has not changed.”

“Bad effects from using hydroquinone – seemed like I would breakout every time I tried to use it. Using Retin-A cream caused breakouts. Incorporating professional exfoliating treatments once a week seems to help. As does NOT wearing heavy foundation or blush or bronzer. I will breakout if I wear primer.”

“Yes. I was released from the military and have not found another career. After being released I noticed more breakouts.”

“Excercise made it better”

“I try all the time. when i was 17 1 was on Accutane and it changed my life for the better until i had kids then its back again”

“Worse due to stress”

“Using accutane made it better, changing birth control to yaz made it worse.”

“Like I said. Over the summer my acne goes into hibernation, but always comes back when I go back to school. I have a summer job that has me up at 5 every morning and in bed by 10 at the latest. I also get way more sun during the summer and eat meals at more regular times during the day. I’m also less stressed and generally happier. I don’t know what factor causes my acne to retreat. It’s probably all of the above. But it’s too cold for me to stay out doors much here, and theres barely an sun.”

“I was on the pill. That seemed to help for a long time. I have used benzoyl peroxide a lot when I was younger, but it doesnt seem to help anymore and it also made my very sensitive skin kind of red and irritated. SA clears my skin up nicely for awhile but then seems to become ineffective. I use it when I would like to temporarily get over a bad breakout stretch, at least until it seems to quit working. I have eaten better in the past, and that seemed to help sometimes (or not at all). Whenever I get very stressed out that seems to make it a lot worse.”

“During the summer, my acne improved greatly. Much more sleep. More outdoor activity. More attention to diet. More attention to myself. Less stress.”

“I stopped washing my face twice a day and picking my lesions. Leaving my face alone and washing once a day helps”

“I stopped smoking cigarettes it got extremely better.”

“Not really. Just skin regimens have helped but always had issues sticking to them, since I don’t want to be a slave to them forever. But I can say that the Acne.org regimen over a year ago, for about 3 months, twice a day was amazing, and I screwed it up adding in a stupid Clean and Clear scrubbing cleanser to exfoliate a little…what a bad idea. Broke out everywhere. I never went back on the regimen after that, and I regret that to this day.”
“worse: moving to Germany better: there was no one thing that I did when my skin got better. I had been doing the same things for some time before that and I was still having breakouts.”

“No. I’ve tried many ways to reduce it but it seems not helpful at all.”

“worse, when i get less sleep and drank less water. and better when i do the opposite”

“I have always had bumps on my forehead and chin. but i guess around prom my skin really cleared up. I don’t remember what I did exactly i think i was just more into drinking water then even eating. Oh yea, and i stopped biting my nails for a good long time around then. (I have been biting my nails… always really have ever since i could remember…terrible habit)My skin is at its absolute worse right now though.. i have acne all over my face (luckily no where else, use to have a little on my back but that disappeared) i have little bumps completely every place on my face except for my jawline basically. And on top of that, huge obnoxious pores on forehead, nose and around nose, and chin. Blackheads mainly on my nose with some sprinkled on my cheeks ( that i pop… not good cause once it heals its replaced an abnormally larger pore) then i get whiteheads on my cheeks. that i admit i also pop too… 🙁 my left cheek is way worse than my right one, i usually just get the whiteheads on my left side.. I have noticed the acne on my cheeks got worse when i started wearing blush.”

“As of right now I could not pin point a dramatic change other then the time I was on Accutane.”

“washing my face every night”

“Getting off ortho tri Cyclen made it MUCH worse”

“Plenty of water, no dairy, no sugar, little to no processed foods, low GL-diet. I’ve reduced stress, added an acne product regimen, and also used very specific vitamins.”

“Swimming in the ocean a few times a week seemed to help quite a bit”

“2010 in spring started to notice much worse breakouts, it has continued and is getting worse. Just went through breast cancer for the second time. Not sure how they are related accept for possible hormonal imbalance.”

“Going vegan last summer cleared my skin a lot. also Yaz birth control pills but they made me depressed and moody”

“yes. I did a master cleanse fast and I stop drinking sodas and drinking no sugar added juices. made it alot better”

“yes, I went off the birth control pill last May and started having problems with cystic acne. I went back on about 2 months later.”

“I lost my job so I’m home a lot more and think that’s why I am having break outs. I just really want to know if there is a way to get rid of it for good…even when I had a job I had occasional breakouts.”

“Stress from loosing my job”

“They got much better when I moved to the USA from Europe about a year ago, stayed that way for about 3 months, but returned to their previous state after.”

“I read skinny bitch and went vegetarian and organic for a few months and cleared up. But I have always had spells of clear skin. I have been going to dermatologist since I was 11, I have also been checked over by endocrinologist to look for root cause but non found. I won’t take birth control pills but think they may have helped sometimes when I used them in the past.”

“Eating healthier.”

“Not that i have noticed, I’ve been on Accutane twice and every time my skin got better. Once i got off Accutane my skin would get oily and id get a lot of blackheads on my nose.”

“I stopped letting my cat rub against my face. Which was hard because I’m close to them and love the affection. That helped a little as far as my acne was concerned…I also don’t pick as much as I use to which helps. I started changing my pillow case regularly as well which seemed to help.”

“When I was pregnant, it cleared up entirely. I got the Mirena IUD, and my skin remained clear while breastfeeding for approximately 9 months. When I stopped breastfeeding my son when he was 11 months old, my acne came back worse than ever.”

“i went to college, but it didn’t get worse for the first semester, only noticed a changed after winter break”

“I recently went off birth control and acne has been worse since.”

“I cut caffeine out of my diet completely and noticed a significant change.”

“I started taking a vitamin B supplement and a garlic supplement . which made my acne severe untill i stopped them.”

“last month I tried using Creatine and I think it caused me a lot of spots…”

“yes. when i used to go out and drink/party a lot my acne would get worse but it was also largely due to me not washing my face before bed when i came home. its improved now due to my own cleanliness and less partying but its stubborn”

“Staying up till 3 in the morning was pretty much a killer. Eating red meat all the time did me in too.”

“As long as I have live in my present city ( hennai, tamilnadu, India) there has not been a day without acne. The climate here is more humid as it is near sea and very warm or rather hot. I moved to bangalore for 3 years and I had very
very rare breakout. My skin became smooth and clear. Bangalore weather is less humid and cooler. I returned to chennai some 3.5 years ago. My skin was fine until I got pregnant which was 9 months after I returned to chennai. I had to abort due to some reasons. Now my acne wont go.”

“Nothing. Lifestyle has nothing to do with acne. Just like cancer is not affected by whether you wear a nice wooly hat. It’s a disease which needs cured. I’ve gone through the spectrum of lifestyle changes and as such, my life is undeniable proof that this idea is nothing but a silly myth.”

“i was extremely stressed out a few weeks ago and saw my skin breakout”

“Didn’t have pimples till I went away from home to all girls college abroad (its just on forehead)”

“No, not really. I’ve had the same, persistent acne for 13 years. It’s not horrible if you look at my face, but it’s still very noticeable and having 3-4 large lumps on your chin area is very difficult to live with.”

“No. But there are a couple of things which spring to mind that worsened my acne. Firstly – I almost never touch my skin, not even for a second. But the few times I might casually touch a part of my face, even a couple of times, just for a few seconds – I almost certainly get a breakout there – in that VERY SPOT. The strange thing is that Im a serious germaphobe so wash my hands a zillion times a day with antibacterial – as such, they are almost always clean. So my skin seems to be hypersensitive to be being touched..? I don’t know.

Second, I used the Lerosett system a few months back. The clay mask was alright but the facial wash absolutely wrecked my skin – my breakouts MULTIPLIED – I had big painful pimples all over my right cheek that HURT and wouldnt go away for days, as well as pimples everywhere else.

Aside from these two, I have never noticed a visible and dramatic change – either bad or good – in my skin, as a result of any dietary/lifestyle changes. I do notice that a healthier diet gives me more energy, I sleep less and feel much less fatigued/lethargic.

As far as stress goes – this seems to have minimal effect on my acne because Ive had phases where Im almost completely stress-free and so happy – acne is still there. Nowadays Im down with exam revision and obviously very stressed – yet have pretty much the same level of acne – maybe 1 or 2 pimples more – nothing major.”

“At 16 my Mom made me cut out fast food from my diet. I have to say that this was a turning point for my acne, I believe that alone downgraded it from a 7.5 to a 6. Before that I had tried numerous medications, including tetracyclin and other oral antibiotics. At 20 I stared taking oral contraceptives. At the time I my dermatologist told me that I should try treatment with isotretinon, which requires birth control pills administered for at least 3 months. My acne cleared up during those 3 months enough that I did not need the isotretinon treatment anymore (the problems described above are what I vividly remember from 3 years ago). I plan to go off the birth control pills in 3 months, and naturally I predict that my skin will severely worsen.”

“I went on birth control and it got dramatically better. Its gotten worse again at college”

“After having my son at 25 my acne became worse”

“When I gave up dairy for a few weeks, all acne on my body cleared up, but not my face.”

“When I became a sophomore in college, my acne got dramatically worse.”

“When I started eating all organic foods my severe acne went down to moderate.”

“started taking vitamin d, vitamin b complex, zinc and boron. I started taking these vitamins together from the information on this website. I am really happy I found this site my acne is basically gone. I have 1 little zit right now but it is healing. A few weeks ago I had about 10 to 20 on my face and I was really upset.”

“exercise, living abroad in a very hot country completely cleared my acne”

“Yes. It’s only been this bad in the past few months, since starting my depression medication (before that it was almost completely clear). But I’ve been sleeping a lot more since starting my medication, and doing less exercise (before that I’d run once a day at the gym for 30 minutes, and go to an hour of Bikram yoga two or three times a week). So it might be a result of either one.”

“When i was 17 i moved away from my abusive situation at home and moved into a nice place with a load of friends i didn’t work and spent the whole time getting stoned, not working being a bum, not worrying about anything and my skin cleared up fine for a few years”

“at one point i was getting sun every day. i would wash my face twice a day with proactive cleanser and put erythromycin on the pimples and that kept my face clear for awhile but then i stopped using it. when i eat healthier, my acne improves too.”

Thank you for according us your time and understanding”

“no only time acne better is on dianette pill.”

“I am still trying to figure it out! Through out my final exams I had very clear skin and once I finished and did well my acne flared up again!”

“Got a job, made my acne terrible,”

“I stopped drinking soda and became regularly hydrated and I fixed a stomach disorder and noticed a significant decrease in my acne. I also strayed away from getting fast food often to never.”

“i stopped smoking and drinking for about 3 months to see if that changed my acne at all and my acne became worse as time went on. i have know idea how that is possible”

“I think its possible my diet is the cause of the increase in my acne. My back and chest got worse about 2 years ago after the death of my mother. I am pretty sure my increased consumption and current addiction to cereal is the culprit.”

“An acne product system I had purchased worked very well, but once I stopped using it, and tried using something else, the acne came back twice as bad. Using the a Dove soap bar worked very well for a time, but the acne has returned and the Dove regimen I still use doesn’t have the effect it had before.”

“not really, when in go in Holidays in the sea, i see some improvements”

“I have had acne since teenage years I have been off and on roaccutane but only recently realized that roaccutane was not fixing my skin when my skin got very bad after drinking 5 coffees in my new job. I have drastically changed my diet with all the recommendations for my diet.. eg. no dairy, drink green tea, drink lots of water, eat whole grain bread instead of white, limit starch foods, zinc tablet, eat a well balanced diet… etc etc and I have seen a noticeable change. I cannot wait to get of roaccutane and continue a great well balanced diet without the dry flaky skin.”

“I can’t remember such situation. I used metronidazol for one year and it cured my acne for a while but I think that my skin got used to it and it doesn’t work anymore. I tried using birth control pills and they helped but didn’t cured my acne completely.”

“Only taking Accutane. Amazing product. Wish I could have continued”

“Yes I have made it better by being active and working out. Even in High school they had a Gym that is for free it made my acne clear, but since I wanted to build muscle and gain mass I didn’t want to stop eating the food my mom gave me. Still that in turn from working out everyday made it clear and using products like clean and clear to Neutrogena then I quit using nuetrogena because it made my face really oily and red. Clean and clear helped a little, but they came back like they were immune to it.”

“When i am relaxed, not in school, exercising, and happy. Also, it’s seemed to clear up after i took my first Xanax pill.”

“Drinking a lot of water”

“Yes, I think taking birth control and using eco-friendly ‘free’ detergents has improved my acne. I lived in Argentina for 6 months and my acne pretty much went away during that time, I don’t know if it was because there were less chemicals in my environment or what. Once I had to take metronidazole orally, and my acne really cleared up from that.”

“Pregnancy wreaked havoc on my body. Acne was only one of the issues.”

“I stopped touching my skin for a while.”

“Drinking lots of water improved my skin, got rid of 95% of blackheads, lots of fresh air seems to help, and using sauna”

“About a year and a half ago, I started taking a multi vitamin and broke out so bad. I didn’t know that it was the multi vitamin until about 3 months later. My husband did some research and found that vitamins with iodine were causing people to have acne breakouts. Needless to say, I stopped taking the vitamin. When I turned 40, about a year ago, I started to break out around my mouth, which I was told, was hormonal and that there was nothing that I could do about it. Once the zit goes away, I often have a dark blemish that could last me up to 6 months.”

“I have noticed that becoming a vegetarian has made my acne go away a little bit.”

“Stopped doing sports during my exams which made it worse, and stopped eating chocolate for 8 weeks which made it better, stopped wearing make up for a week which made it better and stopped picking my skin which made it better”

“Can’t recall anything except taking Accutane.”

“New meds, new workout routine.”

“My acne has definitely gotten worse since moving from Boston, MA to Hoboken, NJ – but that’s also around the time I stopped using Duac temporarily.”

“When i had my exam period last year, I broke out like crazy. I realized I did not work out for 3 weeks and was super stressed.”

“I think eating better and beginning to use skin products might have helped my acne. At least I’m not scratching it as much. But taking Advil made me break out like never before and all over my body. It was horrible.”

“Going to school has dramatically increased it along with remodeling a house.”

“Anorexia completely cleared my skin. I had mild acne in middle school, but when I stopped eating it completely cleared up. I had no zits for 3 years. And then suddenly, 6 weeks ago, I’ve had the worst acne I’ve ever seen. 3 months ago I started eating a lot more (from around 1200 calories to about 2700 calories) and eating a lot more unhealthy things (pizza, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, etc.) Also, the last time I had a period was 3 months ago. I had lost it because of the anorexia, but I was put on Loestrin in February and it immediately returned. But when I started eating more, it disappeared, which makes NO sense. So I think the Loestrin might have screwed up my hormones. Also, this is the same facial cleanser I’ve used for the past 3 years, but over the summer I would work out in the middle of the day and started washing my face 3 times a day instead of just 2.”

“I think taking my antidepressant has made it worse but it also gets really bad during times of stress”

“After doing the veggie diet, my body seemed to detox which i could tell from my digestive system working better…and within 3 weeks my acne was the worst i had ever seen. this was a month ago and i also was getting ematrix skin treatments at this time which like i already wrote about, seemed to increase my acne. now i am starting to get it back under control.”

“I am a raw vegan, and switching from a Standard American diet to a raw vegan diet dramatically improved my acne. However, I am still having a bit of trouble, and that’s why I’m so frustrated–I’ve been doing it for one and a half years now!”

“HUSBAND JUST LOST HIS JOB A FEW WEEKS AGO–ACNE HAS GOTTEN WORSE. ACNE SEEMED TO BE BETTER WHEN USING CLINIQUE 3 STEP SYSTEM. ACNE WAS WORSE WHEN I WAS PREGNANT BOTH TIMES. SKIN WAS BETTER WHEN I TOOK VITAMINS REGULARLY”

“Starting a script on doxycycline antibiotics initially made my skin less oily and bumpy but after taking it for too long my skin became very, very dry and hard to manage. Also my hair started to become bristle so I’ve been taking inner health plus to attempt to replace all the good bacteria that I killed off during that period.”

“I did a cleanse and everything was great, then I went somewhat back to normal and my acne went crazy…worse than ever. That was in September I think, so I’ve gone back to being more strict about dairy and gluten, but things are not clearing up. I though it was due to consuming too much soy milk and stress at work, so I got completely of soy, switching to almond milk, and changed my attitude at work…but I don’t know why I keep getting jaw line cysts. They previously cleared up great when I started BHRT 1.5 years ago, but lately I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I lived in Australia, it was non-existent then, moved back to the United States and it came back and has become stubborn, small zits persisting and occasional larger pimples”

“Started with menopause”

“I gave up dairy and sugar, wheat all together and it seemed to get better but then I got severe depression so I had to re-evaluate what I was eating, lifestyle again and I ended up eating what my dietician prescribed which meant eating wheat and dairy again”

“Not sure. i think when I was taking B complex and chromium picolinate supplements it helped to make it better. I think that when I was using Glycolic Acid topically, it made it better.”

“In the summer it seemed that running and swimming 4 days a week helped, but i was also in the sun a lot and not under a lot of stress. Now i am in school and exercising is not helping nearly as much, if at all anymore.”

“When I first met my husband my acne was bad all of a sudden, but I used Accutane and it went away until now. That was 10 years ago. I am 29 now.”

“Coconut oil has made it better. Xanax and Adderall has made it awful.”

“When i joined the marine corps, thats when the acne started”

“My acne became dramatically worse when arriving to college in September 2009. There were many factors that could play into that: change in location from Raleigh to Philadelphia, change in sleeping pattern (I tend to have a later bedtime now), becoming vegetarian, alcohol consumption.”

“I did eat only vegetables and chicken for a month. I cut out all sweets and bread and milk. It improved my acne, with a couple of pimples still there.”

“When I visited Cuba in 2005, I spent that entire two weeks walking most of the day and while I thought all the sweat would make the acne worse, it didn’t. I was almost acne-free by the end of the trip. But I’m back on the coastside where I hate moving in the cold and rain. My skin does seem to ‘breathe’ better after a hike.”

“better – no caffeine. more water preferably lukewarm. proper hygiene. lemons. less oily more boiled food. better in winters. worse – before and during periods.worse in rainy seasons.”

“I stopped drinking so much alcohol and incorporated green tea into my diet which has helped”

“Stopped taking the pill microgynon”

“When I drink water it does help but I hate the taste of water. I’ve never really known where to start to make the changes.”

“I don’t know. I stopped working out as much and became lazy and that was for worse I guess.”

“When I eat paleo my acne gets better extremely fast but then plateaus at about a 3 and i get tired of eating like that if my acne doesn’t fully go away.”

“Im from germany but I lived one year in the USA and I lived in spain for 5 months. and my skin was better when i live in the states and in spain. The tap water in spain and in the states contains more chlorine than the tap water in germany and sometimes I felt like thats what made it better but I dont know.”

“I had a child while pregnant and nursing, my face was clear now that I recently started to get my period the acne came back”

“Every time I tried a new product prescribed by dermatologist, my acne got worse. the only application that will actually help is Clearasil.”

“Only Accutane made a difference. I took it 2 years ago. My acne returned about 2 months ago and I am considering going back on Accutane but would much rather find a natural way to control it.”

“yes, drinking water, not picking my face”

“Sudden improvement last summer, no change in lifestyle”

“Being anorexic a few years ago made my skin perfect. Nevertheless 2 years ago I went on a completely raw diet which lasted about 3 weeks and went for a run every morning and this made my skin PERFECT as well. Nevertheless I do not have the willpower to eat raw for the rest of my life, unfortunately.”

“Birth control made my acne ten times worse”

“Exercise made it worse”

“No. never made a lifestyle change. it got worse when i turned 19 :(”
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“Yes. When I was 19 I joined the military. After 4 months of only water and lots of exercise my face cleared up 100%. But I didn’t drink coffee then & wasn’t on Zoloft”

“Taking oral antibiotics (Bactrim)”

“Acne started when I was 16 at the same time as CFS. Sedentary lifestyle, insomnia, much time spent indoors. never really improved or got worse. I notice less physical activity and less stress tends to make it better.”

“Do my best to avoid Gluten. When successful results are amazing. Not just for Acne either. Arthritis, Acid Reflux, Eczema, and about 25 other problems greatly improve or go away.”

“When it started getting worse on my face (around the late summer of 2010), my wife and I had just decided to separate after being together for 17 years. I was sad and very stressed….I am sure this had something to do with my acne flaring up. Thing is, it has not gotten that much better since then and it’s been over a year and a half. Also, the acne on my body had/has been roughly the same level all these years since I was in my teens.”

“I stopped eating sugary foods for a couple of months, which seemed to make it a whole lot better, but I find whenever I have a sugary week then the next two weeks I suffer.”

“I haven’t made a lifestyle change”

“Switched to sulfate free beauty products. Began green detox smoothy every day. These helped. Switching to graveyards at work made things worse”

“Taking Zinc took away a lot of redness and seemed to help but its come back a bit as well”

“Going to the dermatologist and following a consistent regimen helped my acne, but I believe it is exfoliation and squeezing that keeps my skin even.”

“Yes, laying out in the sun or tanning seemed to help my acne in the past. As soon as I got Implanon birth control in November of 2011 of acne became bad and got progressively worse. I got it removed but have yet to see improvement from removing it”

“When I completely cut out mild products, sugars and starches (like breads and pasta) I do not get acne. Unfortunately that type of diet is not conducive to my current lifestyle.”

“Changing my diet helped quite a bit”

“Taking the Accutane was the only thing that made a dramatic difference in my acne.”

“I can’t really remember how any changes affected my acne.”

“Yes–I started washing my pillow cases once a week and that helped.”

“Yes, i got on and off birth control and each time my face got worse. however, i feel that constantly changing my routine and products affects my acne more.”

“Only thing i can think of is sun beds, but I didn’t use them a lot. maybe once a fortnight if that but haven’t been on for at least two years.”

“When I’m depressed my skin breaks out. I spend more time inside, i don’t eat super healthy, i don’t drink water. Everything I do to my skin is self destructive and its all because i feel lazy depressed and hopeless about the state of my
face. I get on health kicks where i am determined to take better care of myself and i get a nasty break out and all that work feels useless so i eat a grilled cheese or fall asleep with make up on”

“Diet helps but not dramatically. Zinc helps a lot for one supplement”

“I’m not sure, I spend a lot of time analyzing my acne, like when it gets worse, when or why it gets better. I thought I found the solution with a gluten free diet. But I have a bad spurt of acne right not, while eating extremely healthy diet. I think it tends to get worse when I work in restaurants, though I am not around oils or cooking of food. Maybe the anxiety is an affect.”

“Not intentionally but I do notice my skins clears slightly during the summer or breakouts worsen during the winter months”

“Vacations usually make skin better. Avoiding gluten made a huge difference. Diet in general made better (eating healthy foods and avoiding sugars).”

“Better – I think cutting caffeine, no chocolate, sun, and drinking lots of water help but I can’t say it makes it dramatically better. Worse – not showering especially after exercise, coffee, certain lotions or facial cleansers”

“Stopped drinking milk and watching cheese intake a few weeks ago. Seemed to help at first but been breaking out the last 7-10 days.”

“I stopped taking any SSRIs for one year and took Lamictal. During that year, my acne was limited.”

“Tried to eat healthier, but there was no change”

“Changes in my diet and exercise improved my acne, and my mood. I do not drink any soft drinks, sugary drinks and I drastically reduced my intake of gluten. I am moderately gluten intolerant- it gives me stomach cramps and heartburn.”

“I came off the pill and my acne got a lot worse around my chin. It then started to spread up onto my cheeks.”

7 Replies to “Lifestyle Changes That Affected Acne”

my clarisonic mia brush and retina a micro seemed to help untill my brush clunked and i stopped using the retina a, ive been drinking more water and trying to eliminate dairy as well as exercise and more veggies and fruits seemed to keep at bay, hopefully in a few days even with school starting and getting my learners it will improve

cut of dairy product sugar cereal bread fast food potatos soda …etc eating only in breakfirst lunch and dinner not between help my acne a lot stop using BP differin and evoyed stress and be happy optimism also is better for my skin and watch diamonds and heels 14 videos in youtube boost my confident and make me believe that i can have clear skin and my severe acne has dramaticly improved

The one and only time my face was completely clear, and consistently so for nearly two months happened about two years ago.

I had always had a little annoying adult acne and some cysts. Then I took up yoga, and soon found I had mysterious persistent blems in my eyebrows. I would extract one and then find another one would pop up right next to it, progressing one at a time from inner to outer eyebrow, both sides. Then, when the last blem reached the outer edge, they started one by one to march back in the reverse direction.

A Google search led me to believe this might be folliculitis, an infection of the hair follicle, and so I took 1 tsp organic spice rack turmeric with a dash of black pepper daily for 8 days. By day eight, not only was the folliculitis in my eyebrows gone, all the blems on the rest of my face were healed as well. My face then stayed completely clear for nearly two months.

Coinciding with that time, I wanted to get a tan and lose six pounds before going on a retreat, so I cut out sugar from my diet, including things like all-fruit jam and honey, and went to a tanning booth almost every day for 5-7 minute blasts of ultraviolet. I may have continued drinking green tea during that time, but was not into coffee. My diet otherwise was “healthy” per conventional wisdom–whole sprouted grains, brown rice, quinoa, lean fish or poultry, vegetables of all kinds, no processed foods, organic yogurt.

I have since that time gone through phases of mild to really bad acne, and sometimes hormonal cysts, and found that taking turmeric with pepper for acne does not seem to help very much. Folliculitis is actually an infection so perhaps that is the only thing the turmeric with pepper was clearing up, while the elimination of sugars from my diet and the tanning rays led to clearing of the acne. Just a theory.

Oh, and one other thing–because I suspected that I got the eyebrow folliculitis due to the session-end person to person face massage the yoga guru would give everyone, I asked the guru(s) not to touch me, but at the retreat I allowed it again. A week after returning home, breakouts on my forehead started up again. I took turmeric with pepper again and it helped, however, I have never since consistently kept sugar out of my diet, have discontinued tanning, and have ever since been plagued with some sign of acne on my face. Frustrating it is, and shows I have not been motivated enough to do something about it.

One more thing…last summer I fell in love with my high protein, yummy non-organic greek yogurt and ate two small cartons daily. I got deep cystic adult acne, very bad. Googled that, and someone mentioned giving up dairy to cure it. I gave up Greek yogurt, the only dairy I was consuming, and the hormonal cysts completely cleared up. I did still get a blemish here and there, but not the hormonal cysts. Nearly a year later, I introduced milk back into my diet in the form of organic whole milk, three glasses daily, and my hormonal cysts did not come back. During that time, I drank neither coffee nor tea, as the milk became my beverage of choice with meals. Also, it was summer, so I went outside and tanned in the real sun once in a while. I continued to see the usual minor incidences of acne.

I recently decided to try eliminating not only sugar, but also grains, legumes and caffeine for a while, and take better vitamins, to see what happens. It is winter, and I do not plan to start tanning again at this time.

All I know is, something has to change. Too depressing to live with this, especially given recent total face flare up of the sort that makes you want to stay home rather than be seen. Not sure what triggered it–exposure to an allergen (tree nuts?) or temporary side effect of a new vitamin I started taking? I do not know, but it looks weird to have a face and neck full of whitehead pustules when you are over fifty years old! Let’s just say it doesn’t feel good at any age.

I had perfectly clear skin once in my life, about two years ago, for nearly two months. It is possible.

Incidentally, I have tried over twenty different acne and other skin care regimens throughout the years and cannot say that any one of them or any one product was the answer. The holy grail must ultimately have something to do with diet…and/or tanning, or vitamin D or ???.

I went travelling to thailand, and was sweating a great deal, in very hot humid weather and drank loads of water, my acne that I had had for just over 10 years at the time cleared completely Over a period of about 1 and a half months. It came back after I returned.
I now use 2.5 benzoyl peroxide from acne.org and that works for about 80% of my acne.

Extremely bad, painful acne with nodules and turning skin magenta. Titrating off of prednisone (after colon removed 1/17/17) from 50mg to 5mg (3/27/17): puffy cheeks and some acne. Started taking Canasa 2/17/17 and the acne went out of control. Keeps getting worse – no end in site. Cannot take Acutane due to upcoming surgeries. Topical antibiotic. Natural aloe, thyme to sooth. Strong pain relievers needed for pain. Starting to reduce sugar intake and drink more water.